202 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Sept., 1904. 



planet as enciMiip i^si d in a network of fine lines; and one 

 was prompted to ask whether our astronomers distiugnished 

 in any other planet markings attributable to this cause. 



Section D.— Zoology. 



William Batkson, M.A., F.R.S., Fellow of St. John's Col- 

 lege since 1.SS5. Born Whitby, 1.S61, son of l\ev. W. H. Bateson, 

 D.D., Master of St. John's Colle,.;e ; married Beatrice, daughter 

 of late Arthur Durham, Sjtiior Surgeon to Guy's Hospital 

 (1S96). Educated Rugby School and St. John's College, Cam- 

 bridge. Balfour Student iSSy-iSgo. 



Pulilicatlons. — Materials for the Study of Variation, 1S94; 

 Mendel's Principles of Heredity, 1902. 



Mr. William Bateson, F.K.S., took for his address to the 

 Section of Zoology a subject with which his name has long 

 beenconsp.cuously identified — " The Facts of Heredity and of 

 V'ariability of Species as Exhibited by the Practical Examina- 

 tion and Experiment of ' Breeding.' " The breeding pen was 

 to the zoologist, said Mr. Bateson, what the test tube was to 

 the chemist, and he insisted that the investigation of the 

 problems of heredity by experimental methods offered the sole 

 chance of progress with the problems of evolution. When 

 Darwin wrote his '• Origin of Species," that work which 

 crowned the great period in the study of the phenomena of 

 species, seemed to be, paradoxically enough, the signal 

 for a general halt. The treatise brought the origin of species 

 fairly within the grip of human iatelligence for the first time, 

 but, perhaps because it seemed to imply that the specific 

 differences in species were brought about only by the lapse of 

 immense periods of time, it turned men's thoughts to other 

 subjects that were more amenable to the limits of a human 

 life's investigation : and so the wide field from which Darwin 

 drew his store of facts had remained for some forty years un- 

 explored. Mr. Bateson went on to examine the corollaries to 

 the Darwinian hypothesis which other theories had con- 

 structed. Among them, for instance, was De Kries' theory of 

 mutations — by which species at a certain period in the long 

 history of their generations become imbued with a tendency 

 to change— and of greater importance to the student of 

 Iieredity were the laws due to the investigatory genius of 

 Mendel. The general conclusion to which investigation 

 appeared to point was th.at Nature exercised selective opera- 

 tions no less potent than those which man put into operation 

 in his experiments in breeding. In more scientific language, 

 the true corollary to \'irchow's aphorism that every living cell 

 sprang from a living cell, was that " Every variation froiu type 

 is founded on a patliological accident." In conclusion the 

 President stated the limitations of the knowledge of heredity. 

 '■ There are others who look to the science of heredity with a 

 lofiier aspiration ; who ask. Can any of this be used to help 

 those who come after to be better than we are— healthier, 

 wiser, or more worthy ? The answer to this cpiestion is \o. 

 almost without qualification. We have no experience of any 

 means by which transmission may be made to deviate from its 

 course; nor from the moment of fertilisation can teaching, or 

 hygiene, or exhortation pick out the particles of evil in that 

 zygote, or put in one particle of good. Education, sanita- 

 tion, and the rest, are but the giving or withholding of oppor- 

 tunity." 



Section E.— Geography.— Mankind and 

 Mountains. 



Mi;. Doll}]. as Fklshfili.i., F.K.(,.S.. has supplied us with the 

 following particulars: Born 1S45. Travelled first in Alps 1S54; 

 was constantly taken there liy parents and imbibed tastes for 

 mountains early; climbed Mont Blanc iS6j, made long journey 

 including inany - new " peaks and passes in 1864, recorded in 

 " Thoiion t Trent," privately printed journal, now rare. Visited 

 Caucasus after journey in Svria in 1S68 (described in " Travels 

 into Central Caucasus and Hashaii ") ; ascended for fir.st time 

 Elboug and Kasbeh, returned to Caucasus in 18S7 and 1889, 

 ascending Tetwald .and other peaks; crossed Caucasus eleven 

 times by eight different passes— see '• The Exploration of the 

 Caucasus," a luxurious book illustrated by Vittorio Sells; 

 visited Sikkim in 1899 and made first tour of Kawgchcnjung.i 

 penetrating Nepaulcso valleys and crossing a pass of over 

 20,000 feet after the heaviest snowlall ever known in that 

 region (see " Round Kawgcheujuuga "). My Alpine tours are 



recorded in "The Italian Alps," 1S75. I was for some years, in 

 succession to Sir Leslie Stephen, editor of the Alpine Journal ; 

 have been President of the .Alpine Club ; was for thirteen years 

 an Hon. Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, and am 

 now Chairman of Committee of the Society of Authors, Presi- 

 dent of the Society of Geographical Teachers, and Treasurer 

 of the Hellenic S )ciety. I edited two editions of the Royal 

 Geographical Society's " Hints to Travellers " and also two 

 editions of " Murray's Handbook to Switzerland," and have 

 contributed to the Badminton Library and various periodicals. 

 I know, besides, the .'Vlps, Norway, Italy, Corsica, Algeria, 

 Spain ; travelled in Greece this spring and climbed Taggetus 

 and Parnassus. 



My father was one of the solicitors to the Bank of England. 

 I am a landowner in Susse.x. I had a large share in remodell- 

 ing the publications of ths R 5yal Geographical Society, and 

 have worked for the improvement of in ips, ordnance and 

 private, in this country. 



Have written articles on historical subjects connected with 

 mountains, " Pass of Hannibal " ; and physical, " The Con- 

 servative .Action of Ice." I received in 1S93 one of the gold 

 medals of the Royal Geographical Society and a gold medal 

 at the Paris Exhibition, 1900, for my " Exploration of the 

 Caucasus." 



Mr. Douglas Freshfield's address to the Geological Section, 

 " Mankind and Mountains," was highly historical in its survey 

 of the place which mountains occupy in Nature, and their 

 influence, both spiritual and material, on mankind ; but it 

 raised several points of topical interest, including the topo- 

 graphy and physical peculiarities of the Himalayas; the 

 period of shrinking and advance of the Swiss glaciers with 

 their hypothecated reference to sun-spot periods; and the 

 question of the influence of mountain heights on respir.atioii 

 and physical endurance. The President remarked that the 

 advance to Lhasa ought to throw much light on this subject. 

 The experience of most mountaineers in the last few years 

 had tended to modify the belief that bodily weakness increased 

 more or less regularly with increasing altitude. Mr. White, 

 the Resident in Sikkim, and Mr. Freshfield himself both found 

 on the borders of Tibet that the feelings of discomfort and 

 fatigue which manifested themselves at about 14,600 to 16,000 

 feet tended to diminish as they climbed to 20,000 or 

 21,000 feet. 



Section F.— Economic Science and 

 Statistics. Hovising the Poor. 



Professor William Smart, LL.D., has been kind enough to 

 supply us with the following biographical particulars which he 

 very modestly, but quite wTongly, supposes are "not of much 

 interest." 



'■ When a student I broke down through overwork ; and, 

 giving up all hope of a professional career, catered my father's 

 business, where I remained for .some 15 years, going through 

 all the stages, from office boy to commercial partner. My 

 firm was one of the Clark's, now incorporated with the great 

 thread 'combine' of J. & P. Coats. The factories were in 

 Glasgow and New Jersev, and so I obtained that knowledge of 

 practical manufacturing under Free Trade and under pro- 

 tective conditions which, as one may imagine, has done me 

 some little service in my last book, Tlic Rtturn to Protection. 



"It was at my initiative that the Glasgow Municipal Commis- 

 sion on the Housing of the Poor was constituted two years 

 ago, and my presidential address reflects the experience gained 

 thereat. 



" I need only add, I think, that the Adam Smith Chair in the 

 University of Glasgow was founded in 1896, and that I am the 

 first occupant of it. I am a Doctor of Philosophy of Glasgow 

 and an LL.D. of St. .Andrews." 



Professor Smart, addressed the Section on some of the 

 problems of housing the poor, on which, as a member of the 

 Glasgow Municipal Commission, he had been engaged in 

 examining during the last two years. That Commission 

 arose out of the necessity which had presented itself, con- 

 tingent on the extensive demolition of insanitary and unsuit- 

 able dwellings in Glasgow, of housing the poor whom the 

 extensive municipal operations were turning out. It incpiired 

 into the causes of o\ercrowding ; the remedies to be adopted 

 in curing and preventing overcrowding ; and the important 



